Who is John Francis Bongiovi?

The name Bon Jovi came about from Jerry Jaffe, the mind of A&R at PolyGram, stating that it had a similar sound to Van Halen.

The group however weren`t particularly keen on the theme but later some debate and little fanfare the group adopted the name Bon Jovi as their corporate name and John dropped the `h` from his name to become Jon Bon Jovi.

Since the issue of their first album in 1984, entitled simply Bon Jovi, they have sold over 120 million albums worldwide.

Born John Francis Bongiovi Jr on March 2 1962, he is best known by his fans as Jon Bon Jovi. Jon first began recording whilst working as a gofer at his second cousin`s recording studio during periods of downtime.

A versatile musician Jon can turn the harmonica, rhythm guitar and acoustic guitar. An unofficial album of these earlier recordings, John Bongiovi- The Powerhouse Years, was released in 1999 without Jon Bon Jovi`s permission or endorsement.

Both his father and mother were Marines but his mother, Carol Sharkey (an Italian Serb) was likewise a florist and his mother a barber. He accompanied St Joseph High School in Metuchen, New Jersey and later transferred to Sayreville War Memorial High School in Parlin, New Jersey.

He married Dorothy Hurley, his high school sweetheart, in 1989 at the Graceland Chapel in Las Vegas. They have four children Stephanie, Jesse, Jacob and Romeo.

After John had putt together a circle they started playing showcases and possibility for local talent when they soon caught the aid of record executive Derek Shulman who signed them to Mercury Records.

At the sentence they didn`t get a group name so at the legacy of John Jerry Jaffe came up with the misspelling of Johns, theorising that it would give the like entreaty as Van Halen, he also chose Bon as a credit to AC/DC`s Bon Scott. John also decided to spend the `h` from his call and so the name `Bon Jovi` was adopted as their group name and John became Jon Bon Jovi.

Before the passing of their first album they establish themselves opening for ZZ Top at Madison State Gardens in the States and for Scorpions and Buss in Europe. The loss of there first album in 1984, which was simply titled `Bon Jovi`, went Gold in the US and was released in the UK were it also received fave reviews and a big following.

However their 2nd album 7800 Fahrenheit released in 1985 was not as well received by critics or fans. Even Jon Bon Jovi has been quoted as saying they could get and should get done better. The ring accept also declared that they leave not do any songs off this album live.

The turning point for the lot came when they brought in songwriter Desmond Child who co-wrote many of their hits both on their third album and their future albums.

Slipper When Wet, their third album released in 1986, has now sold in surplus of 26 million copies since it was first released. The next tour proved to be extremely ambitious for Jon Bon Jovi due to the high pitches in around of the song. In fact this caused some difficulties with his voice, threatening permanent damage until he brought in a voice coach to help. He has since tended to sing slightly lower pitches than he did for this.

The follow up album New Jersey became a huge success both commercially and with fans but it nearly brought around the end of the band. With its being released so shortly after Slippery When Wet and followed by an 18 month tour the group found the schedule punishing and on their fall the group significantly went their separate ways and remaining in separate jets. Sambora also offered the lead singer position to Billy Rogers. However, fortunately, after a long hiatus before their following album the group survived.

During a two year die from Bon Jovi, Jon released a solo album in 1992 entitle `Blaze of Glory` which was the soundtrack to the New Guns II movie, more commonly known as Blaze of Glory. The album also featured some high profile guests such as Elton John, Aldo Nova, Little Richard to make a few. The album did well both commercially and critically achieving platinum status quickly.

The band re-group in 1992 and released their "Save The Faith" album which was a release from the Bon Jovi of the preceding as it featured a more mature approach and go to their music. The album was well received by their fans and became a moderate success but it didn`t acheive the same heights of their previous albums.

This album was likewise the beginning of their albums that has achieved a greater success worldwide, despite going double platinum in the US, than it did in the States a course that is too true for their following albums, establishing Bon Jovi as a truly global band.

In 1994 they released their greatest hits abum "Crossroads" which also featured two new tracks and a new variant of "Living on a Prayer" titled "Pay 94″ that was exclusively available on US pressings.

1994 also saw the first, only only interchange in their line-up since their constitution in 1984 when bassist Alec John Such left the group. There has been much speculation since then ask to whether he left or was fired. Jon Bon Jovi claims that he was making to many mistakes onstage due to being intoxicated which Such has ever denied. However Such is yet in touch with members of the band and has even joined them on stage since and has likewise been rumoured to have recordrd some tracks in the studio with them.

Such has never been formally replaced since leaving the radical but Hugh McDonald has handled most of the bass duties on and off stage since then.

There next album released in 1995 was much darker than previous albums and developed their new age sound further, this album also had a strong R & B influence and was often more downbeat. The album became a big success going platinum in the US and topping the charts in many European countries and to see has sold in surplus of 20 million copies.

Over the next years Jon became involve in the film industry and pursued an acting career landing the leading roles in various films. He also released a second solo album in 1997 entitled "Destination Anywhere", which received critical acclaim and was a success across Europe. A light film based entirely on the albums tracks starring Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Whoopi Goldberg was likewise made.

In 1999 reunited to show "Real Life" for the movie EdTV and to get work on their following studio album "Crush" which was released in 2000 which became a huge success in both the US and across Europe and Asia. Their follow up Crush Tour which earlier was solely to encompass 60 shows was prolonged due to the albums popularity and they toured through to mid 2001 during which time they also released a compendium of live performance from throughout their career entitled "One Wild Night". It was during this turn that the group played the lowest ever shows to be held at Wembley Stadium before it was demolished.

The next year saw the discharge of Spring and their US Bounce Tour. The album has never reached the high of its predecessor but but was still moderately successful.In the same year they also released a promotional album featuring eight demo and live tracks.

In 2003 they embarked on a new plan which earlier was to create an album of live acoustic performances of about of their greatest hits. However on the last album "This Left Feels Right" they ended up re-writing, re-recording and re-inventing 12 of their most successful songs.

To keep the sale of more than 100 million albums and their 20th Anniversary Bon Jovi released "100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can`t Be Wrong" in 2004. This consisted of 4 CD`s with 38 previously unreleased tracks and 12 rare tracks as good as a DVD.

In the same year they also won the prize for Virtue at the American Music Awards, where they too played a sneak preview of their unfinished song "Take A Nice Day".

The album was released in Sept, 2005 to an eagerly awaiting audience and it topped charts across the public selling over 2002,000 in the 1st week, a career best for Bon Jovi. In the US a duet version of the dog "Who Says You Can`t Go Home" with Jennifer Nettles, a country singer with the Sugarland band was released and Bon Jovi became the low rock band to make a total 1 hit on the Billboards Hot Country Chart, the song also won a Grammy award for "Best Countr Collaberation with Vocals".

Shortly after it`s release they also embarked on their 2005-6 worldwide "Hold A Nice Day" Tour but after successful shows in Japan and Europe Bon Jovi extended the Go and didn`t give to the US until summer 2006 where they perform several stadium shows including three sellout shows at the Giants Stadium.

2006 was to establish an eventful year for Bon Jovi with their tour, a promotional album "Live From the Have A Nice Day Tour" was released through Wl-Mart, which included 6 live tracks from the tour ( these tracks were subsequently released as B-tracks on the "Who Says You Can`t Go Home" single in the UK), and their initiation into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

Their tenth studio album released in June 2007 was an instant hit, topping the Billboard chart on its release selling 292,000 copies in its first week. Singles released off the album topped the charts across Europe, Japan and Australia. They also did a mini-tour of nine concerts in June & July including a concert in London`s new O2 Arena (previously the Millennium Dome) when it reopen, making them the foremost group to do there. Tickets to the 23,000 seater show sold out within 30 minutes of their release on sale.